


A House In The Woods

by muchmoremajestic



Series: War Machine Bingo 2019-2020 [2]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Background Character Death, Guilt, Horror AU, M/M, Missing Persons, Monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-13 07:16:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21240275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muchmoremajestic/pseuds/muchmoremajestic
Summary: Strange disappearances start occurring after Steve tells Rhodey and Tony about a strange house he found in the woods. Rhodey believes the disappearances are connected, but Tony disagrees. When the disappearances hit close to home, what will Rhodey and Tony discover when they explore the woods themselves?





	1. Odd Occurrences

**Author's Note:**

> For War Machine Bingo, Space M4 - "Horror AU"

A cool breeze carried several dead leaves across Rhodey and Tony’s feet as the slowly setting sun cast long shadows on the lawn in front of them. “C’mon, it’ll be fun.”

That was a line that Rhodey had heard before; it’s the four words Tony always says before he has a brilliant idea that’s going to get them in trouble. It’s words Rhodey has heard for years - since their first days together at MIT - whenever his husband’s curiosity gets tickled and he doesn’t have anything better to do. 

“We are grown-ass men,” Rhodey said as Tony creaked the rusty gate open.

“Who are gonna explore an abandoned creepy house.”

It was almost too perfect; a week before Halloween, where the leaves were a beautiful array of colors as they began to fall. Crisp breezes blew across the Hudson Valley as doorsteps were filled with Jack-O-Lanterns and giggling children pulling pranks; it was a time for hayrides and apple cider, spooky stories and big comfy sweaters.

An October baby himself, Rhodey enjoyed Halloween, horror movies and all the scary fun that came with the holiday. He just didn’t want to experience that in real life.

Unfortunately for the past few weeks, there had been reports of people going missing in the woods not too far from the Avengers compound. It would have been a matter they left for the police, but the most recent person to go missing was a weapons technician who worked in the Avengers’ hanger, and Tony finally agreed to investigate personally at Rhodey’s insistence.

But the first report of something odd occurring had actually come from Steve, who routinely went on long morning runs in the mountains and woods around the compound.

* * *

A couple of weeks prior, Rhodey had been sitting with Tony in the lab as the pair made adjustments to their suits. This was the way they usually started the week; some time together in the lab, light jazz in the background, passing tools back and forth. It was a time Rhodey cherished, if only for the nostalgia of their time together in college. Hours spent in the workshop huddled over benches, troubleshooting problems, eating cheap fast food and slowly falling for each other. In the grand scale of things, how different their lives were since those days at MIT, Rhodey was grateful to spend this downtime with Tony, to have something consistent even after all these years together.

And this Monday morning started as usual, until the quiet sounds of tinkering with tools were disrupted by FRIDAY. 

“Boss, letting you know that Captain Rogers has been pacing outside your lab for the past five minutes. Maybe you would want to go check on him?” 

“Just tell him to come inside, he’s not disturbing us,” Tony replied, not looking up from his workstation.

After a moment, Steve hesitantly walked into the lab.

“Hey, Steve,” Rhodey said with a wave.

Without turning around Tony shouted, “Morning, Cap,” over his shoulder.

Steve didn’t respond right away. Rhodey studied his face. Steve kept his eyes toward the floor; one fist closed and one foot tapping on the floor; he was clearly tense. 

“Is everything alright Steve?” Rhodey asked, starting to get worried.

Steve finally looked up. “Uh, maybe? I guess. I’m not sure,” Steve said with a pause. “Something weird happened on my run this morning.”

Tony put down his tools and turned around. “Weird like what?” Tony asked.

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, okay. This is going to sound silly, but this morning I was out on my usual run, and I ran past an old house. About a mile and a half west of Hamilton Creek.”

“Alright. What was so weird about the house?” Rhodey asked. He was concerned because Steve seemed (1) pretty freaked out and (2) trying to hide how freaked out he really was. This was a man that routinely jumped out of airplanes without parachutes; that charged at oncoming armies with just a metal disc and his own two hands. That something would scare Steve _ at all _ was in itself, distressing. 

“The thing is, I’ve run past that spot hundreds of times, and I’ve _ never _ noticed a house there before. I can look at a map for thirty seconds and tell you every detail five years later. How could I never notice an entire _ house _ before?”

“And it wasn’t a new construction?” 

“No. It was just randomly in a clearing in the woods. The walk leading up to it was completely overgrown, with a tall rusty metal fence around the perimeter. Some of the shutters were falling off, windows boarded up, that kind of look.”

“Did you get a picture of it?”

“I didn’t have my phone with me.” Tony gave him a disapproving look. “_ I know _ \- I know what you said about keeping my phone on me, but I hate having it on me when I run.”

“Okay, well was there anything else off about the house?” Rhodey asked.

“I -” Steve paused.

“What is it?” Tony asked.

Steve was silent for a moment. “Don’t laugh, okay?”

“Neither of us is laughing, Steve,” Rhodey reassured him.

“It wasn’t just that the house was there, when I passed by it I _ had _ to stop running. It felt like something was calling to me, asking me to come inside.”

“Did you see anyone call out to you?” Tony asked.

“No, that’s the thing - I couldn’t see anyone. I just had a chill up my back and a pulling sensation like I was about to sprint toward the door. It took every bit of will I had to take a few steps back and run away from it.” 

“Are you okay now?” Rhodey asked. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Still a little uneasy. But I’m alright. I feel better having told someone. Just - just be careful if you go out into the woods, okay?” Steve paused and looked away. “You know what - I’m just gonna go grab something from the kitchen. Thanks for listening, I’ll talk to you guys later.” Before Rhodey or Tony could say anything else Steve quickly backed out of the lab and turned down the hall. 

* * *

The first disappearance of several happened the next day. Rhodey stopped by his and Tony’s favorite bakery to pick up some pastries for the team, and a baguette for Tony. Rhodey parked his car and approached the bakery. A man was speaking with the owner and handed her a flyer and walked away. Before Rhodey could reach the owner, she walked into the store and taped the flyer to the window. When Rhodey got to the bakery, he paused to examine the flyer.

It was a missing poster, for a young college student in the area. A young woman named Britney Shore, who had a small dark bob and big tortoiseshell glasses. Only 20 years old, she had disappeared three days prior after going on a jog in the woods outside the nearby college campus. He took a picture of the flyer with his phone, and entered the bakery. He would have FRIDAY add it to the daily team news bulletin.

The next day, Rhodey was walking past the compound’s library as Natasha was walking in his direction up the hall. He waved and said hello, but instead of responding, Natasha walked by Rhodey and grabbed his arm, pulling him into the compound library and shutting the door behind her. She pointed to one of the armchairs for Rhodey to sit, a direction he followed, as she checked the rest of the room to ensure it was empty. 

Natasha plopped down in the chair across from Rhodey.

“Hey,” Natasha said, hesitantly. 

“Hey?” Rhodey responded back.

“You’re one of the people with the most common sense in this whole place.” 

“I’ve been told that, yes.”

“So you would tell me if I’m reading too much into things, right?” Natasha asked.

“Umm, sure.” 

Natasha reached into her jacket and pulled out a small grey notebook and slid it across the table. Rhodey recognized the grey cover immediately as one of Steve’s many sketchbooks. Steve frequently kept a small notebook like this one around to doodle in. He had finally found a brand that he liked, and Tony made sure they were always in stock at the compound. As a result of having so many, they occasionally ended up scattered around the Avengers’ living quarters. So Rhodey knew what it was before Natasha could say anything, but he was more concerned by how uneasy she was over why she had it. 

“I was out on the balcony reading some reports. Steve was out there too drawing in this book. At one point he just shivered, stood up and went inside. He left the book open on the table. I walked over to grab it and go after him and just - just look at it.”

Rhodey picked up the book and looked at the contents. The first couple of pages were sketches of trees and leaves, and one beautiful full-page sketch of an overlook down the river. But soon, the pages were filled with the same drawing of an old dilapidated house, in various stages of detail and all done in red ink. The sketches became larger and more detailed as Rhodey flipped through the pages, with more and more close ups of the front porch. The increasing size of the drawings gave the impression of someone walking up to the front door. 

The last drawing was from the perspective of someone standing on the porch. In this drawing the front door was ajar, begging to welcome the visitor inside. 

Rhodey looked back up at Natasha. “Did he tell you anything about this house?”

“No, but he’s been acting weird all week. On Monday he cornered me and Wanda in the kitchen and told us to stay out of the woods but wouldn’t explain why. Is there something I should know?” 

“Steve came up to me and Tony Monday morning, pretty freaked out. Told us he ran across a creepy house in the woods that morning. Totally weirded him out.”

“That creepy house?” Natasha asked, pointing to the sketchbook. 

Rhodey shrugged. “I guess. He didn’t take any pictures of it, said he didn’t have his phone with him.” 

“So this really just started Monday?! He drew _ all _of these in a couple of days?!” Natasha asked in disbelief. Rhodey looked back down at the sketchbook. She had a point - for only seeing the house two days ago, Steve had managed to almost fill his sketchbook with increasingly detailed drawings. 

“Okay, this is all weird but maybe Steve’s just doing this to get it out of his system. I’ve seen it with Tony tons of times - an idea gets stuck in his head and the world needs to pause until he does something about it. When Steve spoke to us he was trying to play it off but I could tell this really weirded him out. Maybe this is just his way of getting over it?” 

“You think so?”

“Let’s see.” Rhodey stood up and walked over to one of the touchscreens on the wall. He tapped once. 

“Hey FRIDAY?”

“Yes?”

“Is Steve currently on campus? Or do you at least know if he’s in a common area at the moment?”

“Yes. Captain Rogers is currently in the training center,” FRIDAY replied, pulling up footage from the training center showing Steve on the punching bag. “Would you like me to call for him?” 

“No, no. That’s fine, thank you,” Rhodey turned away from the panel and back toward Natasha. “See? He’s just doing normal Steve stuff.” The truth was, Rhodey did find the excessive sketches a little disturbing. Trying to play down Steve’s behavior was as much a way to comfort himself as it was to relieve Natasha. 

“I guess,” she responded. Rhodey knew she wasn’t convinced. “I’m still gonna keep an eye on him for the next few days.”

“Not a bad idea. I will too.” 

* * *

That Saturday, Rhodey and Tony went on a date at a quaint but elegant Italian restaurant that overlooked the Hudson, not far from the compound. It was a wonderful evening, with plenty of wine and exchanging spoonfuls of panna cotta as they watched the sun set over the river. They had a driver drop them off afterward at a large park nearby, to go on a long stroll to walk off some of the wine and enjoy the crisp autumn air. 

“I know we said no shop talk on date night, but are you sure you don’t want me to start working on a nanosuit for you? I’m telling you, it’s much more convenient to just have a suit at the ready,” Tony questioned.

“I know it is, but the nano suit just doesn’t have the, I don’t know - it’s -”

“It’s the weight, isn’t it? You like the weight of your current suit?” 

“Well -”

Tony paused and pulled Rhodey to a stop, staring at his husband with a knowing smile. “It’s the boom it makes when you land, isn’t it? _ That _’s what you really like.”

Rhodey smiled and pulled Tony in for a kiss. “Yeah, that’s what it is.”

He took his husband’s hand as they continued to stroll through the park. Ahead on the path, they saw a woman fastening something to a community bulletin board. As they approached, they could see she was tearing up. Rhodey and Tony exchanged a look and decided to approach her.

“Excuse me, miss, are you okay?” Tony asked. The young woman turned and after a second recognized them both. She wiped away a tear. 

“Oh, hello Mr. Stark. I’m okay but I’m actually looking for my grandfather,” the woman said as she handed Tony and Rhodey flyers. It was a missing poster, of an older man. The flyer said he was in his mid-70s but he was very fit and looked young for his age. In the picture, he was wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap and navy blue sweatshirt. A golden retriever was sat at his feet. 

Rhodey asked, “when did he go missing?” 

“A couple of days ago. He likes to walk around the trails in the woods with his dog Roscoe, to stay active and stuff. But a couple of days ago he went for his walk and didn’t come back. Roscoe showed up the next day, but he hasn’t come back yet. The police are working on it, but I couldn’t just sit around and wait.” 

Rhodey held up the flyer. “Would it be alright if we keep this? We can share it around the compound and spread the word.”

“Yes, that’d be great!”

“I can also reach out to the police and see what kind of assistance we can provide. I know they’re pretty well staffed but it can’t hurt to ask,” Tony added. 

“Thank you both so much! It really means the world to me. Okay, I gotta go - more flyers to post and share. Thank you both again!”

“No problem, and good luck,” Tony said.

“Yeah, here’s hoping your granddad can come home safe and sound,” Rhodey said. The young woman wiped away another tear and walked away. 

Rhodey looked back to the bulletin board. In addition to the missing poster of the grandfather, there were two other missing posters - one of the missing college student, and another new poster that featured a missing banker from the area. Man in his late 30’s, always wore a green sweater and frequently went mountain biking in the woods. Rhodey took a picture of the new poster and he left the park with Tony.

They contacted the state police the next morning. They were actively searching for the three missing people, and had swarms of volunteers already canvassing the woods to search for all three together, but they would accept any and all help the Avengers could provide. 

“The lieutenant on the phone said the volunteers have already covered most of the ground area. Ideally, they’d like some aerial and tech support. I said we could do some flyovers and send some drones to help scan the harder to search areas. Think I’m missing anything?” 

* * *

The manpower and tech assistance the Avengers offered to the state police ultimately didn’t yield any results. 

Early the following week, Rhodey was in the hangar looking over completed repairs to a Quinjet when he noticed Sam slowly walk in his direction. Sam looked worried, and Rhodey began to get a sinking feeling in his stomach as if he already knew what Sam was going to say.

“Hey, can we chat for a minute?” Sam asked nervously. 

Rhodey looked him up and down. “Are you about to tell me something about how Steve’s been acting weird?”

Sam’s eyes grew wide. “Yes - wait, how did you know?” 

Rhodey looked around and motioned for Sam to follow him onto the Quinjet. Rhodey shut the bay to the jet and the two men took seats at the front. 

“So what did you see?” Rhodey asked. 

“I don’t think Steve’s been sleeping well the past few days. I thought at first it was just that, the lack of sleep making him act a little off. He just seemed a little distant. Happens to all of us once in awhile, so I didn’t think much of it. But he and I were watching the news, and they were going over the reports of all those missing people. He just sat up straight, and when the report was over and the TV went to commercial he stood up slowly and walked over to the large windows by the dining table - you know, the ones that overlook the forest? Well he just stared off into the woods as the sun set. I called to him and asked if he was alright. Didn’t say a damn word, like he was in a trance or something.”

“And then what happened?” 

“I got a text from Natasha to come down to the hangar because she had found some intel for a mission we had been working on. It couldn’t wait so I ran down there to meet her. By the time I came back, the sun had already gone down and Steve was gone. I ran off to go find him. JARVIS said he had left the building, and I had a hunch of where to look. I went to the back of the compound, and sure enough, there was Steve, standing on the border of the compound and looking into the woods.” Sam looked visibly upset at this point. 

“And what’d you do?”

“I went up to him and asked if he was okay, and that we should go back inside. He was quiet for a minute. And he told me to -”

“- Stay out of the woods?”

“Yeah. What the hell was that about? I asked him about it the next morning and he just acted like nothing weird had happened. I’m getting really worried about him.” 

Rhodey sighed. “You’re not the only one. He saw something on his run last week and I guess he’s still freaked out about it. He told me and Tony about it. Thanks for letting me know. I’ll go talk to him once I’m finished out here.”

“Thanks. That’s if you can find him, of course.”

Reflecting, Rhodey hadn’t actually seen Steve for the past several days. While it was a big compound, Rhodey usually ran into his teammates in the hallways or in the training center or at least in the _ kitchen _\- they all needed to eat - but going through his memory of the past weekend, Rhodey realized he hadn’t seen Steve at all.

He quickly finished his work after Sam left and went to look for Steve. After wandering around the campus, he ended up asking FRIDAY. “Is Steve home?” 

“Captain Rogers is on campus at an unlisted location.”

_ Housing wing, alright. _ FRIDAY was able to check the exact locations of team members if they were in common areas. But for bedrooms, the only monitoring FRIDAY did was to check for medical emergencies. So “unlisted location” most likely meant that Steve was _ somewhere _ by the bedrooms. 

Rhodey looked at his watch. 3 pm. He hadn’t thought to even check if Steve was in his room because it was unlike him to be in his bedroom at this time of day. Rhodey walked toward the bedrooms and made his way to Steve’s door. He looked down, and couldn’t see any light coming from underneath. After a moment Rhodey considered just turning away, and going to knock on the other doors but a small sound from inside Steve’s room snapped Rhodey to attention. 

Rhodey raised his hand and knocked on the door three times. 

There was silence for a moment, and then Rhodey heard the sounds of shuffling as the door slowly cracked open. Steve opened the door only a couple of inches, and stood and used his body to block the view of the room. Not that it mattered - Steve clearly had the blackout curtains drawn and the lights out because it was pitch black in his room from what Rhodey could tell.

“Hey, Rhodey. Is everything okay?” Steve asked, in an almost too chipper tone for someone who had just been sitting in a dark room.

“Could we chat for a minute?” 

“Sure. Would you want to go speak somewhere privately?”

Steve shut the door behind him and they walked to one of the smaller conference rooms. 

“Is everything okay?” Steve asked, sitting in a chair across the table from where Rhodey sat down.

“Listen, Steve. I’m not saying you’re doing anything wrong or blaming you for anything. But I and some of the others have noticed that you’ve been acting, uh, _ differently _, the past couple of weeks. We’re getting worried, and I wanted to make sure everything was okay.” 

“Yeah, everything’s perfect,” Steve said confidently.

Rhodey knew that was in fact a lie, but the way that Steve had answered made Rhodey think that Steve actually believed it. 

“You sure?”

“Yeah! I’ve been getting in some training this week, working on the punching bag -”

“And art too?”

Steve sat back in the chair and grew quiet. His entire demeanor changed, like Rhodey’s question had soured him.

“I’ve been busy.” 

“Look, I know you got scared because of whatever you saw in the woods and -”

“I’m fine.”

“Clearly you’re not -”

“Just let it go, Rhodey -”

“We care about you, Steve -”

“_ There’s nothing you can do to help me _,” Steve growled angrily. “Just stay out of the woods, Rhodey.” Steve jumped up, exited the room and let the door slam shut behind him.

* * *

Later that night, Rhodey and Tony were in their suite at the compound, cuddled together on the couch. Rhodey sat up, staring out the window that looked into the woods as Tony laid down across the couch with his head in Rhodey’s lap. Rhodey had one hand on Tony’s chest and another absentmindedly stroking through Tony’s hair.

“Penny for your thoughts, Platypus?” 

“Hmm?” Rhodey looked down.

“What are you thinking about?” Tony asked.

“Steve.”

Tony let out a little huff. “Well then. I mean, I get it. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about the three of -_ ow _,” Tony said as Rhodey quickly flicked his nipple.

“Not like that, Tones. I’m serious. He’s been acting weird ever since he spoke to us in the lab last week. Haven’t you noticed it?”

“No, not really. And honestly, I’ve found that Steve and I get along better when we just talk openly and don’t try to read for something that’s not there. Have you tried talking to him?” 

“Yeah. Earlier today. He seemed off and was dodging my questions. Last week Nat showed me one of his sketchbooks, and it had a ton of drawings of an old creepy house. I assume it’s the house he saw in the woods.” 

Tony sat up and shuffled to turn to face Rhodey. “Okay, so let’s assume this house is real - I’m not convinced it is, for the record - but if it is, so what?” 

“Well, there’s also those disappearances in this region.”

“Yeah, across the entire Hudson Valley. It’s a large area. People get lost in the woods. It happens. The state troopers can figure it out. We’ve already given drone assistance and volunteers to aid with their search, but otherwise I think it’s a bit too much to just connect the two just because they’re happening at the same time.” 

“So what do _ you _ think happened to Steve?” 

Tony shook his head. “A million different things. Either he hasn’t actually _ been _ by that exact area before, or miscalculated where he was, or maybe some trees were cleared and now he could see something that was hidden before. Or maybe it’s not even a real house - we’re two weeks out from Halloween, who knows what kind of tourist traps or weird attractions or theater performances or even a hologram that people could put out there. For attention, for money, to go viral, who the hell knows? It can be a bit disorienting out in the woods and it’s already the ‘spooky season’. It could be a _ thousand _ things that just freaked Steve out because he’s confident in his faculties - and usually rightfully so - but this is one time where they’ve failed him.” 

“You don’t think it’s odd that Steve comes across this creepy house and suddenly people start going missing?” 

“If this house is so creepy and so old, why wouldn’t people go missing around here all the time? Seriously, honeybear, what’s more likely? That there’s some supernatural haunted hideaway tucked in the woods luring people in, or that one person freaked themselves out around Halloween and we are now just more aware of other things like disappearances happening in the area?” 

Rhodey paused. “Fine. But the next weird thing that happens around here and we’re going to check out the woods for ourselves.”

The next day, Rhodey and Tony went down to the hanger where a circle of technicians were huddled together talking, all looking concerned. Rhodey and Tony exchanged a look and both quickly walked over to the group. 

“Hi, folks, is everything alright?” Tony asked as they approached. One of the supervisors, a tall woman, stepped forward. 

“One of our engineers hasn’t reported to work for the past two days. You familiar with Coates?”

“I know everyone that works here. Scrawny kid, graduated out of Fordham last year, always wears the Giants hat right?” Tony replied. 

“Yeah. That’s the one. He was supposed to work a morning shift yesterday and another shift starting at noon but he’s been a no show. His phone is dead too, we’ve tried calling.” 

“Did you contact the police?” Rhodey asked.

“Not yet. We were actually about to contact someone in senior staff before we reported him missing but you two are here now.”

“Alright. Well, consider it noted. Contact the police and we’ll be in touch with them too.” The group went to make their calls and Tony and Rhodey turned to each other. 

“You’re thinking what I’m thinking, right?” Tony asked.

“Yeah. It’s time you and I took a look into the woods.”


	2. A Word of Advice

Rhodey and Tony had spent the better part of the past two days driving around the mountains, just trying to get a glimpse of something off. They tried flying over the woods in their suits, but they couldn’t see anything through the colorful treetops. 

So they hopped in one of Tony’s cars and began driving around the back roads to see if anything in particular stood out to them. 

But from Steve’s limited description - ‘about a mile and a half west of Hamilton Creek” - they had covered all the roads they could have without actually getting out of the car. Tony pulled over by the side of the road near an opening in the tree line. 

Tony turned in the driver’s seat to look at Rhodey. 

“So what’s the plan?” he asked.

Rhodey sighed. “Okay. We have a decision to make. Give up, and go back to the compound, or get out of the car right now and start walking around the woods. We still have a little time before sunset, but not much. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not getting good cell reception up here.”

Tony looked at his phone. “Yeah, it’s a bit spotty for me too. Not as much a need frequent cell towers out here where nobody lives.” 

They stared at each other in silence for a moment. 

“But I can’t stop thinking about Coates. And that woman we saw in the park. And that college student on the wanted posters. It can’t hurt to just take a short walk for a peek, right?”

Tony nodded. 

Tony pulled the car over further toward the tree line and parked it. They exited the car, Tony locking it on the way out, as they both slowly started to walk into the woods. 

“Keep your eyes out for odd shaped things, or other markers to make it easy to find our way back,” Rhodey advised, turning to get a thumbs up from his husband as Tony stepped over a large log. 

Rhodey couldn’t explain it, but as they walked forward he felt as if he was being guided to a particular destination. There was no rhyme or reason to why he and Tony were choosing their path the way they were. Why choose to walk over an old rotted log ten feet to the right instead of turning left where there was clearance in the trees? But they kept being pulled forward, and after over ten minutes, the pair reached a ring of trees opening to a wide clearing - with a large, menacing house in the middle.

_ It looks dead _ , Rhodey thought. Houses were more than just buildings, Rhodey knew that much. Some houses were alive with love, with laughing children and growing families and new couples and life and hope and light. Some houses were dark - negative spaces filled with agony, anger and despair.

Not this though. Rhodey’s first thought was that the building looked like a corpse. Something that had been alive, for better or worse, but wasn’t any longer.

His second thought was that this had to be the house Steve described. Not due to the lack of other creepy houses scattered about the woods, but between Steve’s drawings and what he told them, the house looked just as he described. A tall, crooked and rusted metal fence surrounded the property, a large old Victorian manor. The wraparound porch was dark, shading the ornate front door. The lawn between the fence and the house was dry and overgrown. The manor had at least three stories, with all the windows covered by closed drapes or boarded up. Shingles barely clung to the old roof, the painted color of the siding long blown out by being exposed to the sun and elements. 

From the corner of Rhodey’s eye he could see Tony staring at the house, mouth slightly agape. He could almost hear the gears turning in Tony’s head, trying to process the sight before him.

They waited, in silence, for what Rhodey wasn’t sure. A silence that was suddenly interrupted by a call to Rhodey’s phone. He quickly pulled the phone out of his pocket to see a call from Natasha. He answered.

“Nat? Hello?”

Nat responded but the call cut in and out. “Rhodey! Where are you? We - It’s - missing - we tried but - couldn’t -”

The phone then went silent as the call failed. 

Rhodey tried to call back but the signal was gone. 

“What was that?” Tony asked.

“Nat. But I couldn’t really make out what she was saying,” Rhodey answered, and looked at his phone again. “And now I apparently have no service out here.”

“Well, let’s go check it out.” 

“Are you serious?”

“C’mon. It’ll be fun.”

Tony walked up the overgrown stone path to the front door as Rhodey followed reluctantly.

Rhodey stepped next to Tony on the front porch. Tony knocked on the door and said, “Trick or treat!” Rhodey lightly hit Tony on the elbow.

“Dude.”

Tony smirked. “What? It’s almost Halloween.”

A chill ran up Rhodey’s spine as a whistling breeze blew by. Rhodey could have sworn it sounded like a whisper, a calling.

_ Come in. _

“Did you hear that?” Rhodey asked.

“What?”

“It sounded like a whisper. Like someone just said ‘come in’.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on -“

“I’m serious!”

Tony turned, now clearly annoyed, and knocked harder on the door. “Hello? Is anyone there?” He jiggled the doorknob but it resisted the movement, clearly locked on the other side.

Rhodey dreaded ever further second they stood near the house. “Okay. Obviously no one is here. We checked it out. Let’s go.”

At that, the door slowly creaked open. There had been no footsteps, no movement, no sound of the door unlocking. 

Tony immediately took a step to go inside, but Rhodey grabbed his arm. “Are you fucking crazy?” 

Tony actually looked a little peeved. “I am tired of this. All of this.  _ There are no such things as ghosts _ . There  _ has _ to be a reasonable explanation for all of this and I want to know what it is so this can be put to rest. You wanted to come out here. We’re here. The house is here. Let’s see what the hell is happening.”

Rhodey felt anxiety tearing at his gut. He wouldn’t call what he was experiencing ‘fear’. Fear would imply that he believed something bad might happen to them. But in this place, it wasn’t a possibility. It felt like a guarantee. So yes, Rhodey had wanted to look in the forest. But now, here on the front porch, pure instinct made him want to turn around and never look back. 

But Tony was right. They were here for a reason. People were going missing. And he now completely understood why this house unnerved Steve so much. 

Something evil was in these woods. And if the Avengers wouldn’t step up to stop it, who would?

Tony walked in first, tapping on his chest and holding out his arm as some nanobots traveled across his chest and down his arm to form a glove. The palm of his hand lit up as they both entered the house. 

The old house opened to a dusty foyer. The floor was broken up, some floorboards cracked with pieces missing. It was painfully obvious that no one had lived there for ages; the decor was out of the early 1900’s - ornate, detailed pieces covered in decades worth of dust; gilded picture frames with fraying fading portraits of old statesmen, hidden under a layer of rot and grime. 

Tony looked around, his eyes wandering up the long staircase on the left side of the foyer. To the right of the foyer Rhodey could see a living room or parlor. As he stepped to walk toward it the front door swung shut behind him. 

“Shit - Tony?” Rhodey said, startled. Tony walked into the parlor. 

“Keep it down. We don’t know who else is here.”

“But the door! Was that you?”

“No it wasn’t -  _ don’t freak out _ \- if all else fails I’ll just blast out one of these windows if we can’t get out. I have my armor. We’re fine.” 

They slowly walked around the parlor. A couple of dusty, moth-eaten couches surrounded a small table with porcelain tea cups on it. Rhodey peeked into one of the cups, and there was still an old stain and rotted tea leaves stuck to the bottom. He grimaced in disgust and continued to walk around the room. 

Rhodey approached the fireplace. It was an ornate fireplace, with a large stone mantel with carved details, now outlined in dirt. Above the mantle was a large portrait of a man, but whose face was covered in white with long red and black scratches across the canvas.

“Next time, can we just leave the demon shit to Doctor Strange?” Tony asked, shaking his head in disgust at the portrait and knocking some cobwebs off an antique chair. The chair was a part of a pair, and the other chair was a few feet away. Still covered in cobwebs, with a green sweater draped over the chairback. Rhodey walked over and inspected it - too modern and not soiled enough to be an old heirloom of the house. Rhodey looked back at the mantle. Tony was at the end of the mantle, and he held up a pair of tortoiseshell glasses. 

“Green sweater. Tortoiseshell glasses, weren’t these -”

“Things that belonged to the missing people? Yeah,” Rhodey confirmed. 

They looked into the lounge and dining room on the ground floor, and found both devoid of any life but each had an abandoned modern object, one a dead smartphone and the other a day planner.

They moved next to the kitchen. 

The kitchen still had antique furnishings, and stacks of old porcelain plates, chipped and stained from years of neglect. A baseball cap sat perched on top of one of the stacks of plates. 

“The grandfather’s baseball cap. Okay. You were right. House and missing people are connected,” Tony said, picking up the cap in one hand to examine.

“I promise you I wish I wasn’t,” Rhodey said, as they cleared the kitchen and returned to the foyer.

“First floor is clear. Want to head upstairs?” Tony asked, taking one last peek into the parlor.

“Want is not the word I’d use, but yes, we should go upstairs,” Rhodey responded, as his eyes turned to the staircase. 

There was something on the top step. He couldn’t tell what from the lower level, so Rhodey began the ascent up the staircase, with Tony right behind. Each step let out an agonizing creak as they went up. As Rhodey reached the top, he could finally see the object. 

A small, grey sketchbook. Steve’s sketchbook.

Rhodey felt his stomach plummet as he picked up the book. 

“Tones -” Rhodey whispered as he lifted the book up for Tony to see. 

Tony tapped on the nano particle container and the nano bots filled out the rest of the Iron Man suit. 

“We need to find him,” Rhodey said, flipping through the pages hoping for clues but just seeing crossed out scribbles.

“I’m scanning, but it's not actually picking up any heat signatures besides the two of us,” Tony said, moving further onto the second floor. A quick check of the rooms cleared the second floor, and Rhodey found the staircase that led to the third. 

“We should go check upstairs.” 

“Agreed.”

“I just called in the War Machine armor too, it should be here in a couple of minutes.” 

They were halfway up the stairs when Rhodey paused as he heard what sounded like distant voices chanting. The stairs led to a long hallway, a room at each end. 

“You hear that, right?” Rhodey turned to ask over his shoulder. 

“Yes. And still no heat signatures.”

Rhodey turned back and saw a figure that he thought looked like Steve quickly disappear into the room at the end of the hallway.

“Steve!” Rhodey called out as they both hurried down the hall after him. 

Rhodey expected a locked door or some resistance, but the door to the room swung open at a slight touch. Rhodey and Tony stood side by side together and looked around.

The room was large. The windows were all boarded up, and the only light in the room came from a door frame on the outer wall. A semi circle of people stood around the doorway, staring into the green pulsing light of the open doorway. There were five people - all the missing people - standing together, with a gap between two of them to accommodate another. 

The people were chanting in low voices, mumbling something that didn’t sound like English or Latin or any other language Rhodey had ever heard. He looked to his left and then saw Steve, moving slowly toward the open gap in the row of people. Tony ran forward and grabbed Steve’s arm, spinning him around. From outside, Rhodey heard a large boom which he assumed was the War Machine armor slamming to the ground.

“Steve! Are you okay -”

Steve pulled his arm away, and Tony grabbed him again.

“Let me go. I need to go.”

“Steve, you need to come with us-“

“I need to go, let me go!” Steve said, more aggressively, trying to pry Tony’s grip off his arm but not having the focus to do so. Steve and Tony struggled, and Tony kicked out Steve’s leg and knocked him to the ground in an attempt to pin him down and keep him from joining the circle. 

Steve yelled and tried to kick, just desperately trying to get up.

Rhodey could barely process the scene in front of him. The people were chanting, and started moving toward the doorway. Tony was in the suit wrestling Steve to the ground as Steve screamed to be released. Nano bots reached out of Tony’s suit to pin Steve’s arms to the ground.

“ _ Let me go I need to go” _

“Rhodey! I need back up here, your armor should be outside,” Tony grunted as he struggled to keep Steve down.

Rhodey unfroze and turned to run out of the room as his eyes finally looked up to the ceiling. A horrific sight, a thin white beast with clawing, hooked arms and bug-like legs sat perched on the ceiling, patiently waiting. Rhodey wanted to scream, wanted to cry and grab Tony and Steve and run as far as he could. But seeing one of the monster’s long arms raise up, instinct kicked in and somehow Rhodey got the courage to run by the monster and through the door. 

_ I need my suit for whatever the fuck that thing is. _

The monster swiped as Rhodey ran underneath. He heard a loud thud behind him as he ran to the stairs, running down as fast as he could without tripping down. He heard the pounding steps of the monster in pursuit behind him.

Rhodey sprinted down the stairs, jumping and missing the last couple of steps to dodge another swing of the monster’s arm, crashing into the wall and knocking over a vase in the foyer as he ran out the door.

His armor was outside the house, open and waiting. Rhodey jumped into the suit and took off as the monster screeched from the front door. He flew up to the back of the house and burst in through one of the boarded up windows.

He landed in the portal room, and saw Tony and Steve were still struggling on the floor. The others had already gone through the portal. The portal still glowed, and spun faster and faster, the pull stronger. Rhodey raised his arm and launched a small missile into the top of the door frame, shattering the portal and destroying the pull.

Rhodey heard two anguished screams, one from the direction of the lower floors where the monster had just been, and another from Steve, who had finally managed to scramble out from under Tony and ran toward the open hole in the wall where the portal had been. 

But before he could make it, Rhodey reached for the War Hammer on his back.

_ Sorry, Steve. _

Rhodey swung the War Hammer right into Steve’s upper back. Steve was stunned and then dropped back to the ground, temporarily unconscious.

Tony sent out a small drone from his suit through the open door as he scanned Steve’s vitals. 

“Do you see the people out there?”

“No. It’s just leaves and old branches and wood. They’re gone.”

“Shit. Okay. C’mon. We need to get him out of here.” Rhodey picked up Steve and carried him over his shoulder as Tony raised his hand ready to provide cover fire if needed. 

They both flew out of the broken window. Not willing to risk dropping Steve, Rhodey asked, “You see anything back there?”

Rhodey could hear a large crashing noise. Tony turned to look behind him. “The house just collapsed. No heat signatures detected.” 

They flew the rest of the way back to the compound in silence. 

* * *

Natasha and Sam had been waiting when they returned, with a medical team accompanying them, assuming Rhodey and Tony had found Steve after Natasha had called to say he had run off into the woods. Steve was taken to the medical wing. No injuries beyond a quickly healing bruise from the War Hammer, from what the doctors could tell, but he was still given a mild sedative to ease him as he slowly came too. 

A few hours later, Rhodey returned to his and Tony’s quarters. Tony was sitting on the edge of the bed, head in his hands.

“Steve is fine. Awake now. Doesn’t really remember a thing, says it felt like he had been in a bad dream the past couple of weeks.I also explained what happened to Doctor Strange, see if he could figure it out. He should get back to us in the morning.” 

“And the house?” 

“Sent state troopers and a rescue team the coordinates. And they called back a half hour later to reprimand us, saying we filed a false report.”

“False report, what are you talking about? A fucking house collapsed and five people are missing in -”

“A completely empty clearing.” Rhodey handed his phone to Tony. One of the troopers forwarded a body camera video. It showed fire and rescue teams, all on the edges of the clearing. As the cameraman turned to where the house should have been, there was nothing. Just overgrown grass.

Tony tossed the phone on the bed and buried his face back in his hands. 

Rhodey sat down beside his husband, putting a reassuring hand on Tony’s back. “Tony, I know you. Please don’t beat yourself up about -”

“You warned me! And I refused to listen and because of that people are dead!” Tony responded, visibly upset.

“And because you insisted we go inside Steve wasn’t one of them.”

“If we had just looked sooner, or investigated when Steve first spoke up -” 

“We may not have found anything useful. Or may have ended up in the portal ourselves. Tony, we can’t be everywhere, stopping everyone from every kind of harm. We just can’t. We have to do our best. We fight aliens. Villains eager to take over the world or destroy it. But creepy monster in the woods is not exactly within our wide range of expertise. How could we have known for sure?”

Tony leaned into Rhodey’s arms, and Rhodey squeezed his husband tight as he started to cry.

* * *

The next morning, Rhodey awoke to the sound of Tony’s phone ringing. 

“Hello? - Yes. - What? - When? -  _ All of them _ ?” Tony asked, each question asked with more force than the last after the long pauses in between. Rhodey sat up to look at Tony.

“That’s incredible. Thank you so much. Keep us updated.” Tony hung up. 

“What happened?”

“They found them. The missing five people! Alive!”

“Where?”

“The clearing. Guy was walking his dogs through the woods and he got to the clearing, and there the five people were. Sitting up, scattered in the grass, incredibly dazed but absolutely alive.” He rushed forward and hugged Rhodey tightly.

“Do they remember what happened?”

“Didn’t say, but I presume not. If Steve couldn’t remember most details and he didn’t even go through that portal I’m betting the others remember even less.”

Rhodey looked down at his phone to see an email from Doctor Strange and read it out loud for Tony.

“ _ Good morning Col. Rhodes - _

_ I reviewed the footage from your suits and examined the details from your stories. With Wong, I’ve examined all the books at the Sanctorum and cannot identify the entity you all encountered. I can check the library at the Kamar-Taj but I doubt it will result in anything.  _

_ Sometimes evil is just evil, its desires and purposes beyond our comprehension. Who’s to know what lies in other dimensions? I’m sorry I don’t have a better answer for you, but I am currently working on a few spells for that clearing should the house or the creature attempt to return. I doubt it will - it seems that for whatever it wanted to do, your monster needed six lives, not five. But should it, I will be notified, and so will you, and we can proceed accordingly.  _

_ For now? I suggest following Captain Rogers’ advice. It’s really for the best just to stay out of the woods.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm glad I chose this for my bingo card - I know many people aren't always fans of horror or horror AUs, but this was a lot of fun to write!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm muchmoremajestic on tumblr and vrose23 on discord!


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